Tech: Engine Builds

By Gordon Young: Is improper control of blow-by gases in your crankcase causing problems in your engine? If any of these questions below sound familiar, then read on. “Why does my engine leak oil? I took care when fitting the gaskets and seals.” “Why do my valve covers persistently...

By Alfie Bilk: Jon Kaase has won this year’s Amsoil Engine Masters Challenge Vintage class with a 473ci 1958 MEL (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) engine. Exploring the classic turf in distinctive fashion, it was not the first time Kaase had arrived with an unorthodox relic endowed with bewildering technology. Held annually in...

How a clever concept remedied misalignment in competition engine blocks – By Archie Bosman: No other engine deficiency would have irritated racers, particularly professional drag racers of the last century, like core shift. A bitter source of anguish, they would describe it in a way not easily forgotten. “We...

By Freddie Heaney: The sound of the dyno approaching 8,000rpm was almost ear splitting. It was the first Friday of June and sitting in an open wooden-framed space at Charlie Pepper’s engine shop in Auburn, near Atlanta, Greg Brown’s innovative Hemi heads on a Man O’ War 427ci small-block...

By Archie Bosman: It’s easy to underestimate the cost of a deficient harmonic balancer. But they can have a profound effect on the fortunes of the able race engine—a natural enemy of crank and bearings. With the engine running, camshafts and crankshafts vibrate torsionally (in twist) and, as the...

By Sam Logan: What’s the motivation for adapting LS cylinder heads to a small-block Chevrolet engine? Why not just go out and buy a used LS-series? It’s a modern power unit; it’s bestowed with high flowing heads, it’s readily available and it’s affordable…all the benefits you could desire. Except...